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May 10, 2011

Groupon Joins Forces With Live Nation

by Sam Savage

US deal-of-the-day website Groupon has teamed up with Live Nation Entertainment in a partnership that will launch a new online ticketing website allowing customers to buy tickets to concerts, theater and other events at discount prices.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, however, the site is expected to go live before the summer concert season begins.

Live Nation Entertainment was created by a merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster Entertainment. The company produces over 20,000 shows each year for more than 2,000 artists and bands like Rihanna and Def Leppard.

"Our success is based on selling tickets and filling seats and GrouponLive gives us another platform to achieve this," Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino told Associated Press in a statement.

GrouponLive will act as a local resource for Live Nation events and clients of its ticketing business, Ticketmaster, the companies said in a statement.

"With unprecedented access to Live Nation's expansive roster of performers and events, GrouponLive will be the destination for exclusive live event deals," Groupon founder and chief executive Andrew Mason told AFP.

Rapino said GrouponLive "represents a new channel to drive value for fans, while helping artists and others to reach ever larger audiences."

"By adding this channel to our ticketing platform, we will also provide our venue partners with another option for driving ticket sales across a wide range of events," said Rapino.

The two companies said GrouponLive will offer limited-time deals on tickets to concerts, sporting events, theater, art shows and other live venues in the United States and Canada.

Groupon, whose expected IPO could value the company up to $20 billion, is a leader in the lucrative online daily deals market. The company has grown from 3 million to about 50 million users across 500 cities in 40 countries throughout 2010.

North American concert revenue dropped 8 percent in 2010, hurt by weak consumer demand and higher ticket prices, according to trade magazine Pollstar. In 2011, Live Nation is booking fewer shows and cutting prices for seats further from the stage.

Rapino said more artists are trying to make back-row seats cheaper so more fans can attend shows.